National Health Investors, Inc. (NYSE:NHI) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Juan Sanabria : Okay. Thank you for that. And then just — you mentioned dispositions were higher than you had expected, and that drove a little bit of a tweak down in the guidance. So, that was one of the drivers. Just curious, I guess, on the yields on those dispositions in terms of rent that flow through the P&L associated with those dispositions in the second quarter.

John Spaid : Juan, I think in our business update, right, Dana, there’s a table that you can refer to, to give you that information regarding yield. But remember, one reason why we’re making these dispositions is they’re leading to concessions. So, that yield is really a true yield considering concessions that are resulting from them. And so that’s been a big part of our strategy is to make sure we maintain a strong balance sheet when things are — when we have invested capital that isn’t delivering the returns we need. I would say that one property got accelerated a little bit this year because there are some changes in the law in one of the states — in the state that it was operating. And it became more problematic to move the license if we waited too long.

So, we sort of weigh the risk of that disposition against the changes in law in that state and move that along a little bit faster because we’re really working hard, Juan, to put an end to all this noise this year right now as soon as we possibly can. And there was some element of this particular asset moving our guidance down a little bit because we were thinking it had some opportunity to be a contributor to FAD this year. But that operator just became — there was just too much risk associated with that operator to not move it out.

Juan Sanabria : That’s helpful. And then just a final comment or question, I should say. What are you guys seeing broadly between independent living and assisted? It’s been a topic, obviously, through earnings season. And as part of that or more broadly, I guess, are you seeing any price competition, either discounting, waiving of fees, et cetera, given some of the distress we’ve seen in senior’s housing more broadly either with your operators or the competitor set?

Kevin Pascoe : Sure. This is Kevin again. I would say that we’ve seen the more need-driven FAD rebound faster. I think we’ve both seen that in macro, but also within our portfolio. As we’ve talked about our independent communities have been slower to respond on occupancy, but you also think that’s associated with having a couple of manager changes over the last 12 months to 24 months, which has not been helpful for them rebuilding their pipeline. More recently, we’ve seen some gains in independent living, as we noted in our prepared comments, and feel like the operating partners have done a good job of rebuilding the teams and those sales funnels. So, we’re thinking, we believe that should continue. I do think that there’s an element of concessions going on, on both assisted and independent.

I think as we look at some of the NICMAP, it would suggest that there’s increases in Street rates, but then or at least, and in addition to the customers that are already in the communities, but we know full well through looking at the markets in our buildings and looking at some of the other data that there absolutely are concessions going on. And even as it relates to our independent building, trying to get occupancy has been the priority. So, there are concessions going on there to make sure that we’re getting net move-ins, which, again, is starting to happen. So, we’ve been pleased with that piece. But it is challenging to increase rates as you’re trying to fill communities.

Juan Sanabria : Thank you, very helpful.

John Spaid : Thank you.

Operator: And we’ll get to our next question on the line other follow-up from Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets.